The Lands Commission held a sensitization workshop in Kumasi to educate members of the National House of Chiefs about the new Lands Act, 2020 (Act 1036).
The Act revises and consolidates previous enactments on Lands into a single law, with the view to ensuring sustainable land administration and management, and effective and efficient land tenure.
Addressing Members of the House, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources responsible for lands and forestry, said stakeholders in the land sector had been calling for a critical look at the laws governing land management in Ghana.
He said the existing laws were bedeviled with inconsistencies, bringing about several problems in land administration such as the proliferation of land guards, multiple sales of lands, tenure insecurity amongst others.
He said to resolve these challenges, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assented to the Land Act 2020 (Act 1036) on 23rd December, 2020 making it a milestone in Ghana's land administration regime.
Mr Owusu-Bio said the Act cannot act in isolation, and therefore, there was the need to engage the traditional authorities who are undoubtedly the biggest and most important stakeholders in the efficient implementation of land administration in Ghana.
He said the meeting was to sensitize the chiefs on the provisions of the Land Act, for example the registration of allodia interest and the establishment of Customary Lands Secretariat for the traditional authorities.
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He entreated Members of the House to embrace the provisions of the Act to help bring sanity to the land sector.
"I wish to humbly entreat members of the House of Chiefs to embrace the provisions of this Act to help bring sanity to our land administration," he said.
He said that the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, which oversees the Lands Commission, undertook numerous stakeholder discussions. Adding that, Chiefs being custodians of 80 per cent of lands in the country could not be left out.
"I request the House to deliberate on the Act and propose inputs to the Ministry of Lands for consideration in drafting Legislative Instrument (LI) for the Act," he implored the Chiefs.
Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, President of the House, welcomed the initiative to engage the House on such an important matter and called for the cooperation of members.
